wages rival ours

By RUSS RAK

OSHAWA — In recent speeches to business organ-
izations and in interviews with the press media, Nick
' Hall and Richard Colcomb, chief executives of General

Moters, (GM), in Oshawa, have said that Japanese auto
manufacturers can put a car on the Canadian market for
$1800 less than GM and that this is mainly the result of
lower wage costs in Japan.

They also said that in order for GM to be able to
compete, price wise, with foreign car imports, GM must
reduce labor costs (wages) in Canada. They want the
UAW to accept wage cuts and give back other benefits
now.

What these GM big-wigs neglected to tell us is just
what the labor costs per car are in Japan compared to
labor costs perGM car in the U.S. and Canada. I am sure
they know the difference, so why don’t they reveal
them?

According to statistics on U.S. auto industry wage
costs (compiled by economists in the U.S.) the total
wage cost of a U.S.-produced car today, including the
parts industry wage costs, is about $1,500. If we accept
the thesis that Canadian labor costs are $1,800 higher
then the Japanese, it would mean that Japanese workers

1. working for nothing, and to compete, the Canadian
workers would have to work for nothing.

GM wants us to believe that compared to wages paid
to Canadian autoworkers, the Japanese autoworkers are
poorly paid! That just is not the case. Certainly not
according to the feature report on wages of Japanese
autoworkers published in the Toronto Star, April 28,
1981. According to the Star, the average yearly pay,
based on the 40-hour week of Toyota workers, is equiva-
lent to $25,920 in Canadian funds. This does not include
benefits we GM workers haven't even dreamed of.

For example: no layoffs because of a guarantee of
lifetime jobs; free gas and travel allowance to and from
work; rent subsidies: 4'2% mortgages; lump sum retire-
ment bonuses of $60,000 to $90,000 at age 60 plus a
monthly pension, and much more. All of this is paid by
the company.

Corporate Bureaucracy

___ Another reason why GM wants concessions and wage
“cuts from the UAW is because of profit losses in the last
two years. Two of the reasons why GM showed a loss in
1980-81, are because (a) they did not reduce their enorm-
ous corporate bureaucracy in line with the 30% drop in
production, and salaries of this staff actually increased,
and (b) because of excessive spending on administration
and especially new special tools and plants. It seems
they want to make us pay for this through wage cuts and
give backs of benefits. However over the long term, GM
has raked in record profits. From 1966 to the end of 1980,
GM profits amounted to $28-billion after taxes and all
sorts of bonuses for company officials. Why weren’t
there any offers to increase wages or reduce the price of
GM vehicles during these years?

Recipe for Disaster

On Jan. 8, American UAW officials representing GM
and Ford workers in the U.S. agreed to meet with GM
and Ford company officials as early as Jan. 11, to discuss
opening contract negotiations because of the serious
crisis of layoffs. The indications are that UAW President
| Douglas Fraser is prepared to make concessions on
wages and benefits.

This is a recipe for disaster! Wage cuts and give backs
of benefits will not save our jobs or increase car sales.
Workers are not the cause of the present crisis of in-
flation and unemployment. It was caused by the profit
greed of all the multi-national corporations and banks.
If we agree to wage cuts and give backs in the UAW,

then all other workers will also be forced to take wage
cuts. This can only lead to sweatshop conditions and

Starvation wages. If working people cannot afford to buy
_U.S. manufactured and Canadian assembled cars now,
}_ then they certainly won't be able to afford to buy them if

they are forced to accept wage cuts.

_ It will result in still lower car sales and more layoffs
and more wage cuts, and that is what the big corp-
orations and the government want.

_ Robert White, Canadian UAW Director and many
local UAW leaders and shop committees, including
Local 222, are opposed to re-opening contracts to
negotiate concessions on wages and benefits with GM in
‘Canada.

What is needed is an all-out united campaign by the

“UAW in Canada, the Canadian Labor Congress and the
Provincial Federations of Labor to mobilize the union
‘membership for a fightback campaign against wage cuts
and give backs in Canada. Special membership meetings
should be called without delay, to discuss the crisis and
/ outline plans and tactics for the fight-back.

Russ Rak is a member of UAW Local 222, GM Osha-
wa.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEB. 12, 1982—Page 6

Japanese auto

CLC ‘too busy’ with Poland

No first ministers’ protest

Special to the Tribune

OTTAWA — Delegates to this
increasingly active labor council
voted unanimously, Jan. 21, to ask
the Canadian Labor Congress to
organize a protest demonstration
coinciding with the provincial and
federal First Ministers’ meeting,
Feb: 2.

This unanimous endorsation of
the council executive’s recommen-
dation was overshadowed, however
in the CLC’s eyes by the top labor
leadership's commitment to support-
ing the ‘Let show-biz be show-biz”
media extravaganza mounted by
Ronald Reagan and company Jan. 31
to attack socialism in Poland.

While the Ottawa council also
voted to endorse the sparsely-
attended Jan. 30 rally organized
jointly by the Canadian Polish Con-
gress and the CLC, there wasn’t
much enthusiasm for the cold war
campaign against Poland which has
seen the leaders of Canadian labor
sharing platforms with some of the
most anti-union forces in the country
and joining in a world-wide cam-
paign with the most consistently
anti-socialist and anti-labor forces
and governments in the world.

The CLC’s priorities were re-
vealed to the labor council delegates,
Jan. 20, by the congress’ Eastern
Ontario organizer Len Ruel who said
that while the CLC would be sym-

LABOR

pathetic to the labor council’s call for
a demo, the congress wouldn't likely
act to organize it because the Cl,C’s
resources were committed to the
Jan. 20 rally.

In arguing for the Feb. 2 demonst-
ration during the First Ministers’
conference, several delegates noted
the provincial and federal govern-

ments’ abject failure to stop the

crashing decline of the economy and
the fact that they can only look to
such anti-worker proposals as wage
controls as their ‘‘remedy”’ for the
crisis. ;

The debate also reflected the new
level of activity of the council and its
growth in affiliated membership
over the past three years. Nineteen
eighty-two has seen the Ottawa and
District Labor Council move into
new and larger premises for its
offices and meeting hall, reflecting

the revival in its activities.

The council has become the focal
point for strike and lockout support
in the Ottawa region. The Jan. 20
meeting also agreed to step up sup-
port for the 25 members of Local
225, Office and Professional Em-
ployees International Union,
(OPEIU), who have been on strike
for 19 weeks against Union du
Canada Assurance Co.

The delegates voted to contribute
$100 to the local strike fund as wellas

to organize a second ODLC}
sponsored benefit for the strikers.

The main issues in this strike fora
first contract are seniority, job.
classification and wages. Most of thé
strikers are women clerks and one-
third of the workers earn less that
$10,000 a year. During recent media
tion talks which subsequently broke
down, the company withdrew all of
its previous offers and announced.
that if a contract were signed, onl)
three of the strikers would be rehire
since the company planned to retail!
scabs hired since the strike began.
Both the Ontario and Quebec federa-
tions of labor have been urged a
have agreed to issue financial appe
als.

The council also unanimously ag
reed to send a telegram to Quebec Ss
Parti Quebecois premier René
Levesque protesting the govern
ment’s action inYtrying to smash the |
transit strike in Montreal. The mo-
tion carried unanimously despite thé
CLC’s Ruel cautioning delegates
about supporting unions nol
affiliated to the congress. Two of the
striking transit unions are members
of the Confederation of Nationa
Trade Unions, (CN TU), the seco :
largest central in Quebec after the
QFL. The third union was an
dependent organization which hae”
broken away a couple of years ag?
from the CN TU. q

Ontario labor plans more
action on interest rates

TORONTO — Following up on the massive pro-
test organized Nov. 21 by the Canadian Labor Con-
gress against soaring interest rates, the 800,000-
member Ontario Federation of Labor at its executive
council meeting Jan. 28-29 agreed to launch a series of
simultaneous demonstrations throughout the pro-

vince.

“* The focus of the rallies will be to continue the fight
to lower interest rates’’, OFL president Cliff Pilkey
said Feb. 4. ‘‘Of course, there are spinoffs from that,
like unemployment and plant closures, and we’ll deal
with that, but the central focus will be on interest

rates.’

Pilkey said the federation definitely sees a role for
the coalitions which were born around the labor
movement in the CLC’s Nov. 21 protest, but that the
OFL’s committee which co-ordinated the federa-
tion’s input into the CLC demo will have to meet Feb.
8 to lay out the foundations for the campaign.

‘*Certainly we'll be seeking input from other forces
in our campaign once we get the ground rules worked

out’’, Pilkey said.

The Feb. 8 meeting will bring together representa-
tives from all of the major affilated unions to the fed

and the labor councils.
Pilkey said the brush-off Prime Minister Trudeau
and his government gave the provincial premiers in
Ottawa last week on the question of lowering interest
rates, and increasing transfer payments to the pro-

vinces, “only reinforces the need for us to do this kind

of thing.”’

Watching Ontario premier William Davis flounder
before the television cameras for an answer to what
Ontario can do to help its sick ecohomy, after being
told to get lost by Trudeau and Finance Minister

OTTAWA — Banks and other
employers under federal jurisdiction
cannot deny salary increases to union
members that they regularly pay to
non-union employees while the union
employees are awaiting a contract
settlement, the Canada Labor Rela-

MacEachen, Pilkey said, ‘‘maybe there’ isn’t mu
they can do about it, but we certainly can. '

““We can give a focus to interest rates through oUF
rallies across the province, we can highlight the pro b
lems and who’s responsible”’, he said.

UURUAUUUARUU AA EEE TEEELEUEEELEELEUUEEELUEEELMEUEREEUG UNO ONONNENERURETURERENNENRE EMRE LEE

tions Board ruled Feb. 3. Federal labo!
law imposes a freeze on pay and othe!
conditions of employment once a unio?”
gives notice to bargain to an employetl
The majority of the panel held that reg
ular pay increases were part of the fro”
zen terms and could not be withheld

OFL HEAD CLIFF PILKEY ...
interest rate crisis.

labor holds answer 0.

}